


A way out

by TheIceQueen



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Adrenaline, Angst, Blood, Broken Bones, Drowning, Fist Fights, Gen, Guns, Gunshot Wounds, Head Injury, Hospitalization, Hostage Situations, Hurt, Hurt Spencer Reid, Injury, Injury Recovery, Major Character Injury, Medical, Near Death Experiences, Protective Derek, Scared Derek, Shooting Guns, Team as Family, Unconsciousness, Whumptober 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2020-12-23 16:36:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21084455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheIceQueen/pseuds/TheIceQueen
Summary: Morgan tries to convince an unsub to not shoot Reid.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Prompts:  
Chapter 1: Whumptober 2019 #no.5 – Gunpoint  
Chapter 2: Whumptober 2019 #no.13 – Adrenaline  
Chapter 3: Whumptober 2019 #no.28 – Beaten

“Morgan, don’t…” Reid rasped through the choke hold.

“Let him go!” As Morgan raised his gun and stepped slowly closer to the gunman holding Reid, his only regard for his own life was to be able to get his partner to a hospital if he needed it. “Point that thing at _me_!”

“Sure. Why not…?” The man answered, too calm for Morgan’s liking. He could handle a scared suspect, even a panicked one. This one was calm and collected which meant that he already had a plan. The man slowly directed the gun at Morgan.

“No…” Reid’s air was cut off and in the dim light from the only light on the bridge, Morgan saw his hands tighten on to the arm around his neck.

Morgan took a small step closer, but froze as the man pushed his own and Reid’s backs against the railing. “You know there’s no way out of this if you kill either of us.”

“Oh. You think I want that kind of way out.”

With his knees suddenly shaking, Morgan still managed to keep his gun steadily pointed at the laughing man’s head.

“I know that’s not how it works.”

His sinister smile widened as he rubbed his cheek against Reid’s messy hair. “Your bullet or mine.” He shrug his shoulders. “It’s all the same. But this one…”

If there wasn’t a chance of hitting Reid, Morgan would have emptied his clip between the guy’s eyes when he kissed the top of Reid’s head.

“This one killed my brother. He’s not getting out of this life that easy.”

The second the man lowered his gun and pushed Reid against the railing, Morgan was on him. He grabbed his arm and as the gun once again was pointed at him he pushed his own up under the man’s chin and fired.

“Mor…” Reid screamed but was cut off by the air emptied from his lungs.

The frantic grip Morgan got on Reid’s sleeve wasn’t enough to even make a tear in it as Reid tumbled backwards over the railing and disappeared into the darkness and the sound of the raging river below. When Morgan’s gun landed next to the dead body, he’d already thrown himself in after Reid.


	2. Chapter 2

The sound of the raging water overtook Morgan’s full world. It was easy to get air enough to dive to look for Reid. It wasn’t as cold as he’d expected as he jumped. It wasn’t cold at all. He screamed out Reid’s name every time he broke the surface, but the white fast moving water overpowered the sound. As he realized that he might not was getting enough air anyway, fear set in that he wouldn’t be successful. He was pulled with the current too fast to see how far he was. Gasping for air and staring to feel the fatigue in his legs desperately fighting to hold him up, he searched the turbulent surface and the back as it rushed by.

A leg, maybe. Possibly Reid’s shoe. It wasn’t clear but it was the best he’d got. Getting to the riverbank took the rest of the air from him. The strong moving water pulled him to the center of the river, but his only thought was that if it was Reid back there; he was lying too still, and as soon as he found something solid he held on tight. When he failed to hold on to the first branch, he felt for the first time that the cold water had affected him without his knowledge. The second branch was stronger and he got his leg around it fast. He didn’t know how he got on sore, or how he was running along the riverbank while coughing up water, but soon he was kneeling next to the water and Reid’s lifeless body tangled in a tree.

He pulled him all the way out of the water and turned him to his back. “Reid!” Morgan coughed and heaved air in through his rough throat, as he padded Reid’s cheek hardly. “Spencer!”

He wasn’t responding. Morgan felt his hands disappear, and in the dark and with his own fight for air, he didn’t see them either as he tilted Reid’s head back. He held his own breath and put his ear over his mouth and focused on his chest. He was breathing. Morgan’s lungs relaxed and he breathed in enough to make him cough violently again.

“Help!” He screamed towards the lights from the road. “Someone! Help!”

Loosing sight from lack of air he held on tight to Reid’s wrist and found that his cold fingers were able to find a slow pulse. “C’mon, Spencer!” He grabbed his chin and looked hopeful at his closed eyes. “Wake up, Reid.” He had no more than a whisper left.

“Is someone down there?”

Morgan looked up and saw the black silhouette of the man standing next to the pathway outside the trees. “Yeah…” He cleared his throat and heaved in air. “Call and ambulance!”

The man seemed to hesitate before he called back and then talked to someone on a phone.

“Der…”

The whisper, pulled all tension out of Morgan’s muscles. The light from the road reflected in his eyes.

“Thank God.” He moved Reid’s hand to a hold on his own chest and cupped his cheek carefully with his other hand.

“How…? Wha…?” Reid looked around but Morgan leaned into his gaze to have him focus on him. He closed his eyes and his breathing slowed down.

“Hey! No, no!” Morgan took his face in both hands padded his cheek with one hand. “Spencer, don’t do this! Stay with me, help is almost here.”

Reid let out a small hum and his head became heavy in Morgan’s hold. Frantically, he searched for a pulse as he looked at the fixed chest. He lost sight of his hands again as he placed them on Reid’s chest.

\---

“Sir! You need to give us room.” A woman pushed his chest and he fell back to sit on his heels.

Morgan’s lungs emptied as another medic blocked his sight of Reid. He only saw his limp leg flop over the other as they turned him to his side and back. Morgan sat frozen in place and only moved his head to follow the crew carrying his partner out through the trees and placed him on a gurney.

“Continue compressions!”

A jolt of added fear rushed trough him when he realized that Reid still didn’t have a pulse. He heard himself breathing too fast but had no control over it and no strength to stop himself from swaying where he sat.

“Sir… agent…? we need to check you out too.” The woman’s voice was far away and still too loud as it echoed in his head. Her dark silhouette hunched down in front of him and she held him by his upper arms. “Agent, can you…?”

She pulled one of her hands back and Morgan followed her line of sight to her palm shining dark read in the blinking light. He felt the jerk in slow-motion when she tore his sleeve of his shirt.

Morgan heard her speak, maybe shout. If it was to him or someone else, he didn’t care about; the only thing clear was the doors slamming closed on the ambulance.

“Sir? Are you shot anywhere else?”

For the first time he felt the cold, and not just the consequences, but only for a second before it left and the world tilted and vanished in black.


	3. Chapter 3

“Reid?!”

“Hey, lie back.”

The electrifying pain in his arm knocked him back on the bed before he knew who was talking.

“JJ?”

Light fingers took his chin and turned his head a little to the side.

“Hi.” She smiled but even in the blur that was still lingering he could see that she wasn’t relieved.

“Spencer?” He spoke low and hesitant but made it clear that he demanded an answer.

JJ looked over him to the other side of the room and Morgan held his breath through the pain as he moved to look at the bed next to his. Reid was lying still, unconscious, but he was alive. The first thing Morgan saw was an oxygen mask and not a ventilator. Which meant that he was breathing on his own. He had a bandage around his head and a small spot of read had made it through. His leg was in a cast all the way to his thigh and hanging from the ceiling.

More awake than before, Morgan managed to use the right arm to push himself up. JJ objected but after a few seconds of stern eye-contact she helped him to his feet and pulled a chair over for him to sit next to Reid.

Morgan looked over the numbers on the screens, not really sure what to look for. “How is he?”

“He’s stable, but he hasn’t woken up yet.” JJ hung a blanket over Morgan’s shoulders, careful not to touch the bandage on his upper arm. “He was beaten on the rocks, but it’s all superficial except the headwound and the leg.”

Morgan looked up at JJ. “He wasn’t hit?”

“No.” She pulled a chair over and sat next to them. “No, you were the one shot.”

Morgan has trouble remembering the details of the struggle. The thing most clear was Reid tumbling backwards over the railing. He leaned in a bit and took Reid’s hand, careful not to mess up the IV. Half his face was covered in dark purple, almost black, and blood red bruising. It was more than one hit that had done that. Morgan tried not to think about how beaten he must look on the rest of his body.

“Did they say…?” He looked at the limp hand in his and swallowed. “Did they talk about how long…?”

JJ shook her head and took Morgan’s other hand. “No, they don’t know. We just have to wait.”

* * *

The whole team had been in. Some trying to help the doctors convince Morgan to go back to bed. Some sitting silent on the other side, holding Reid’s other hand. Garcia had brought food and they had all eaten together, but there was always one holding Reid’s hand. Mostly Morgan, but Rossi had threatened to put another hole in his arm if he didn’t eat.

JJ and Garcia had both offered to stay, but after Morgan had turned them down, the others didn’t ask, and soon the room was completely quiet.

An hour more went by before the doctor came in to check on both of them. Morgan insisted on Reid being first and only after being told that he wasn’t worse and they could still only wait did he let the man check his wound. After the doctor had urged him to lie in his bed and left the room, Morgan again took Reid’s hand and got ready for a long night.

“Mor…” The whisper almost had Morgan jump of the chair in shock.

He grabbed Reid’s hand with his other hand too and moved closer. “Spencer? You awake?”

Reid turned his head towards Morgan and his eyes blinked slowly open. “Morgan?”

“Yeah, kid. It’s me.” Morgan felt his shoulders sink with his nest breath. “How’re you feeling?”

“My head…” He lifted his head only and inch and looked over the room. “Are we in the hospital?”

Morgan smiled and stood up, slowly elevating Reid’s bed a little. “Yeah. We took a swim, but we got back up.”

Reid looked more confused than Morgan remembered being when he woke up, but he _had_ hit his head and been out for a whole day.

“What do you remember?”

Reid looked Morgan in the eyes and Morgan could practically see the wheels turning in his head. Then it was light a switch turned on and Reid looked at Morgan’s bandage.

“You fought him. He shot you.”

Morgan laughed, clearly confusing Reid more than comforting him. “Of course you remember the only thing I don’t. Do you remember me pulling you out of the water?”

Reid frowned and looked down in thought before looking up at Morgan. “No.”


End file.
